'Humiliate Christians Until They Convert'

Sermon by Salafi Islamist leader in UK details the bullying tactics advocated by global jihadists in the pursuit of an 'Islamic State'.

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Ari Soffer, 08/05/14 22:35

Salafist demonstration in Morocco (illustrati

Reuters

In a sermon earlier this year, a British Islamist leader outlined how under an "Islamic State" Christians and other non-Muslims would be systematically humiliated and persecuted to encourage their women and children to convert to Islam.

Abu Walid, an Islamist affiliated with the hardline Salafi stream, cited sources in the hadith (Islamic teachings outside of the Koran, based on the words of Mohammed's companions) which detailed how the "People of the Book" - referring to Jews and Christians - were to be treated as second-class citizens, or dhimmis, if they chose not to convert to Islam.

Those measures include, among other things: being forced to walk on the narrower side of the street to Muslims, shaving their foreheads, wearing red belts around their necks, being forced to wear odd shoes and only being allowed to travel sideways on donkeys.

The aim is essentially to bully them into accepting Islam - or at the very least to encourage their children and wives to leave them to escape humiliation.

Though originally recorded back in January, the footage was only recently published publicly by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Salafism is a puritanical version of Sunni Islam which preaches a return to what they see as the true origins of Islam, modeled strictly on the actions of the religion's founder Muhammed.

While the ideas expressed in the sermon might sound frankly bizarre, they were in the past implemented in the aftermath of the Islamic conquests of the Middle East, Africa and other regions including the Iberian Peninsula.

Those non-Muslims who were not "People of the Book" were usually given a much simpler choice: convert or die.

Even today, Salafi Islamists - including Al Qaeda-linked groups - often impose variations of the humiliating dhimmi status on non-Muslims under their control, which also includes the payment of a regular jizya tax to their Muslim rulers.

In the northern Syrian town of Raqqa, for example, the few Christians who remain have been allowed to retain their non-Muslim faith only under condition of accepting second-class citizenship and the payment of the jizya.

And following the ouster of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi last summer, Islamist extremists took control of several towns with large Coptic Christian communities, systematically abusing and humiliating them until being driven out by the military.

In the most recent high-profile attack against Christians, Islamist terrorists kidnapped nearly 300 Christian girls in Nigeria - and then released a video mocking their relatives and threatening to sell them into slavery.